It’s easy to throw a stranger a lifeline

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/11/2021 (1559 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Six months after my daughter was born, I made my first blood donation.

I had always wanted to donate blood. It seemed heroic and the easiest way to do something good for somebody else. But I had always been hesitant. I’m not afraid of needles or having blood drawn for lab work, but the idea of giving blood gave me a real sense of anxiety.

I remember hearing that the questionnaire was invasive (it’s not), and I remember being afraid that in my pursuit to donate they would find something incurably wrong with me, and I wasn’t ready to face that. It sounds foolish, but for so many years I had the privilege and immaturity of never having to think beyond myself.

Things shifted when I became a mom. I don’t mean for this to sound cliché, but when my daughter was born so was her mother. My kid made me a better person and changed the way I saw and lived in the world.

Giving blood saves lives.

When I was able to, six months after giving birth, I made my first blood donation. From there I continued to go regularly, so long as I felt OK and my iron levels were suitable.

The Canadian Blood Services website says every 60 seconds, someone in Canada needs blood. In fact, the website states that half of all Canadians will either need blood or know someone who needs it in their lifetime. Recipients can be any age or gender, and come from any background.

In 2017 after one of my blood donations, I sat down for a coffee and a doughnut. I sat close to the counter and struck up a conversation with a volunteer named Lynne.

We spoke as though we had been friends for a long time. She spoke candidly about why she started volunteering at Canadian Blood Services, and how important it was for her to share her story about why she volunteered.

She explained her late husband needed blood about eight or nine years earlier. He needed it regularly as part of his treatment because he had a rare form of leukemia. She said he had been given three months to live, but he lived for 14 months thanks to blood donations.

“He was always going to die, his leukemia wasn’t curable,” she said. “But, we got an extra year because of people like you who donate blood.”

She told me he wasn’t just given extra time, he was also given quality of life.

I was so moved, not only by her story but by her need to give back to the organization and the people who helped her family. She said that since she had directly benefited from blood donation, she needed to keep telling her story to people like me, who were there to donate blood.

I told Lynne that I enjoyed her company and asked if I could take her picture and share her story. She said yes. So I wrote about her, first on Facebook and then on my old blog. Through the magic of social media and the hundreds of folks who were moved by her story that they shared it, we found each other and became friends on Facebook.

I recently made my 22nd blood donation. I went on my lunch break and the entire appointment took a little less than an hour. The staff and volunteers at Canadian Blood Services were so friendly, as they always are, but most importantly it felt nice to be able to give something that will help families like Lynne’s.

The need for blood is constant. Donating is simple and doesn’t take much time. You can book your appointment at www.blood.ca.

shelley.cook@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @ShelleyAcook